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Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
41–50 of 116 posts
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#42It appears that regular cannabis use [0] decreases dopaminergic brain-activity [1]. Dopamine is often referred to as "pleasure"-transmitter, but it's function in certain parts of the brain is better thought of as "regulating expectation", therefore influencing drive & motivation. It makes it possible to work on stuff you don't particularly enjoy by focussing on an expected long-term reward. This works by enabling you…
I wonder then what the effect of cannabis is on the motivation/drive of someone with ADHD. Does the ADHD subject have a very weak frontostriatal circuit to begin with so that low dopamine levels only make something weak weaker (and therefore not having as profound outward effect as making a strong frontostriatal circuit weak).
Or do the low dopamine levels and impaired circuit compound each other, resulting in a larger-than-normal decline in motiviation.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#43The real concern with this study is not the possible negative effects of marijuana (which are already known) but the moral correctness of its legalization. I personally have not and never will smoke pot, but that doesn't mean I support the continuing ban in America. Everyone has the right to determine his own destiny, and if engaging in personally (but not socially) destructive behaviors like smoking pot is a person'…
I agree people should have the right to determine their own destiny. Earth, however, isn't a free planet. Show me a country with sovereignty and I'll show you the Bilderberg, World Bank, IMF, CFR and the UN. How can any individual truly be free to choose their own destiny when society is constructed on man made conventions such capitalism. I contend that freedom doesn't exist at the state level therefore cannot extend to the individual.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wanted to elaborate on that point. You are completely right. There are laboratories measuring that stuff from urine and saliva. They are expensive and the results also need to be controlled for things like normal thyroid function, so you can map properly derive levels in the brain. Also the tests need to be done at different times of the day. The test-results include ranges. Interpreting and correlating the values…
What kind of things can they measure from urine and saliva? Can you point at any literature on this, would love to read more about it.
Adrenaline, Noradrenaline, Dopamine, Serotonine, Cortisol, GABA and many more...
Just google "lab test" for these.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I ask because I constantly hear the "chemical imbalance" explanation for behavioural issues and prescribing these drugs, EDIT: can I check: are you hearing that from doctors doing the prescribing?
Yes Edit: I also hear it frequently from parents of children who have been referred to psychiatrists by their schoolteachers for (in my opinion at least) fairly minor disruptive behaviour in class; they are repeating what the psychiatrists tell them. The psychiatrists also quote statistics like "half of Swedish inmates are adhd, so if you don't treat your child's adhd there's a good chance he'll end up a criminal (ye…
So, you haven't actually heard it from the doctors? Because (especially in the UK) any prescribing doctor talking about chemical imbalance for ADHD in children is incompetent.
> Here in the UK the diagnosing psychiatrist is also the one that the child must return to twice a year for a checkup at 500 pounds per visit.
This is false. All treatment is available for free on the NHS. Once they have a diagnosis children don't have to see the same psychiatrist - or any psychiatrist.
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/chapter/1-Guidance#dia...
> 1.3.1.1 A diagnosis of ADHD should only be made by a specialist psychiatrist, paediatrician or other appropriately qualified healthcare professional with training and expertise in the diagnosis of ADHD, on the basis of:
[...]
> 1.5.3.2 Drug treatment should only be initiated by an appropriately qualified healthcare professional with expertise in ADHD and should be based on a comprehensive assessment and diagnosis. Continued prescribing and monitoring of drug therapy may be performed by general practitioners, under shared care arrangements[7].
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#46I think things like drugs and alcohol are worse for growing brains. From a NYC teacher (One reference point)
"I’ve taught high school for 25 years and I hate what marijuana does to my students. It goes beyond missing homework assignments. My students become less curious when they start smoking pot. I’ve seen it time and time again. People say pot makes you more creative, but from what I’ve seen, it narrows my students’ minds until they only reference the world in relation to the drug. They’ll say things like: “I went to the beach and got so high,” or “I went to a concert and got so high.” They start choosing their friends based on the drug. I hate when people say that it’s just experimenting. Because from what I’ve seen, it’s when my students stop experimenting.” ' http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/129574836736/i-hate-pot-...
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#47Alcohol is the real threat to cognition, and we don't talk about it. [1] [2]
We don't know where the line is exactly, but somewhere around 4-5 drinks over a few hours has an acute neurotoxic effect.
Cannabis use in adolescents does not result in changes that can be picked up on high resolution MRI scans. [3] This is a considerable finding considering that one would expect changes just from the added stress of being a cannabis user in a prohibition environment (fear of arrest, fear of expulsion, fear of parental punishment upon discovery). It may even point to a protective effect of cannabis on the brain, as we see in Parkinson's and has been seen in other studies and in stroke. [4]
A UK study on the IQ effects of moderate cannabis use on students did not find evidence of harm. The study did find significant evidence of cognitive deficits caused by alcohol use. [5]
Why do young adults want to get high so much? I think the answer is that they are coping with the stress of being locked into institutions that do not serve them, do not respect them and offer them very little, while demanding very much.
One of the themes of Ferris Bueller's Day Off was high school as prison. The entire movie is a jail break story, and I think it gets to the truth of what its like to be doing time in high school better than anything.
It's no wonder so many teenagers cope by getting high as much as they can. And then we blame them, and treat them like criminals, when they are just sufferers of low mood.
We need a radically different approach to high school education. I think we need to find a way for people to be more economically useful, economically empowered and more in control of their lives at younger ages.
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25702705
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3183294/
[3] http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/4/1505.short
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10863546
[5] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/22/no...
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#48As this is framed more as the results of a policy change, there are some things to consider when banning weed:
- Street sales to tourists and foreigners exploded. Small-time dealers reported weekly income of 2k Euros during the prohibition.
- Dutch teenagers use less weed than German, UK and Belgian teens. Legal availability seems inversely correlated with actual use.
- In France there is no clear distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs. A dealer will sell you pot, but also heroin.
- There are other ways to get weed, without using a weed pass. Home growers will not check the age of the person they are selling to.
Smoking weed in Holland has a social stigma attached to it. It is not cool, it is for chumps. Policy changes like these may make it dangerous, hidden and cool again, actually raising our usage to the levels of neighboring countries.
As to the results, I shudder and think: Imagine what Feynman would have been able to achieve, if he had no access to weed or bongos for seven months...
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#49Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
He describes how undeniably exceptional he is, and then implies that his experience should be a guide for unexceptional people.
There will always be outliers.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#50Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
Are people not realizing that everything after the first sentence is a direct quote from the Yegge rant?